Southport couple celebrate diamond wedding anniversary

A diamond couple from Southport have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary surrounded by family at Formby Hall.

Tom Bradshaw, 84, and his wife Ilyd, 81, were married in Marshside Road Methodist Church, Southport, on June 2 1956 before a reception in the church hall and a honeymoon in Torquay.

The pair celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with their four children, 12 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren - the most recent of whom was born just a few weeks before Tom and Ilyd's 60th anniversary. Tom said: "We're a very close-knit family and very supportive of one another."

Tom and Ilyd Bradshaw surrounded by all of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren

The couple grew up two roads apart from one another and when Tom came out of his basic training for national service with the RAF in 1953 he met his bride-to-be on his week's leave back home in Southport. Tom said: "We went for a dance at Floral Hall, as you did in those days, and we seemed to hit it off. Then by Christmas we said that if I was posted abroad we would get engaged."

Tom served with the RAF in Germany from January 1954 until April 1955, coming home only twice during his 19-month-long service. One year after his return home the couple were married and living in a home they built in the town. Tom said: "I always say that I built the house and my wife built the home. There's nobody more loving or caring for their family.

"That's why we have such a close-knit family. I give her a lot of credit for that. She devoted most of her life to raising our family."

Tom and Ilyd Bradshaw cut their wedding anniversary cake

Since taking an early retirement in 1986 the couple have enjoyed their company together ever since. A coach-builder by trade, Mr Bradshaw worked as a lecturer at Liverpool College for 26 years, teaching vehicle body engineering. His retirement coincided with the same year that the Council tried to close Southport Flower Show.

Tom went to a public meeting at the pressure of his wife and became one of the 15 members of a steering committee designated to assess the feasibility of saving the show. Working on a voluntary basis, Tom was one of the people who saw that the show was saved in 1987. He said: "It was a very enjoyable and satisfying period of time. The flower show was the flagship marketing tool of the town and it was worth saving. Now there is the satisfaction and reward of seeing how it's developed since."

Sixty years after their wedding the couple remain as devoted to one another as ever, and could certainly offer some sage wisdom to today's newlyweds on how to foster a marriage filled with love and longevity.